Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observation:
Mrs. Crescenzo asks her students to write the dates of upcoming labs and tests in their planners while she does attendance and checks homework. Most of the students just sit and talk, without even taking out their planners. Before she begins to go over the homework, she walks around the room to make sure everyone brought their calculators. One girl doesn’t have her calculator, so Mrs. Crescenzo moves closer to her desk to yell at her for not bringing it. Next, Mrs. Crescenzo goes over the homework by asking students to write their solutions on the board. As some students write their solutions, the other students sit quietly in their seats. Two students in the front of the classroom are talking to each other quietly and one student in the back of the room (right in front of where I was sitting) is playing with his Gatorade bottle and coloring on it. Mrs. Crescenzo stands behind her desk at the chalkboard the entire time she is going over the homework. As Mrs. Crescenzo goes over the problems on the board and makes corrections most students are just sitting there. A majority of them will use their calculators to verify answers when they are asked to, but some are totally disengaged and just staring at her. About 50% of the students actually make correction to their homework while going over it. Others are playing with their nails/hair/calculators. There are pretty typical signs of students being bored. One student sitting in the back of the class copied all the solutions from the board onto his blank homework assignment. After going over the homework, Mrs. Crescenzo asks her students to take out their textbooks and notebooks. She moves from behind the desk to the front of the desk to begin the lecture. She lectures on differences between solids, liquids, and gasses. She asks students questions from time to time, but she is mostly just talking. While she is lecturing, one student in the back of the classroom is flipping through his textbook aimlessly and not listening at all. Mrs. Crescenzo walks back behind the desk to demonstrate viscosity using “goo” in a big hourglass. Everyone watches her as she flips the hour glass over and the goo starts to flow down. Next she teaches students how to light the Bunsen Burners and all students are paying attention to the fire. Students break up into pairs, go to the lab benches and practice lighting the Bunsen Burners. Mrs. Crescenzo and I walk around the room, helping people who are having trouble and making sure people are being careful with the gas jets and the fire. After finishing the lab, they are told to go back to their seats and begin working on their homework assignments. Most students are working, some are talking, and a few are doing nothing. A few pairs form and they work together quietly. The same students in the front of the room who were talking in the beginning of class sit turned in their chairs and talk for the entire 15 minutes. As time went by, less and less students did their work the classroom became louder and louder until the bell rang. Mrs. Crescenzo was busy doing work on her computer and answering a few students about questions on the last test.
Reflection:
I was surprised that Mrs. Crescenzo never said anything to the students who were talking and to the students who had their heads down doing nothing because she is generally very strict about everything. Overall, I think my observations were pretty normal for a high school class right before lunch time. The first half of the class kind of dragged and it was not very interesting, so I wasn’t surprised to see students getting fidgety and lose interest. Going over the homework took a really long time, and no one really seemed to be focusing on it too much. Mrs. Crescenzo went through 10 of the same types of problems so students lost interest, especially those who got the answers right in the first place. Having the goo demonstration helped bring kids back into the class. After she started her lecture and showed the goo, the students came back to life. They definitely enjoyed lighting the Bunsen Burners, and it was good for them to be able to get out of their seats for a little while. With such long class periods, it might have been helpful to allow students to get out of their seats and light the Bunsen Burners before the lecture so they would have an easier time paying attention after being allowed to get up for a short amount of time. I think giving students’ time to start their homework at the end of class can be useful at times, but it seemed really unproductive in this instance because Mrs. Crescenzo wasn’t really paying attention to what the students were doing at all. I would have also used some sort of visual such as a PowerPoint or notes on the board to accompany her lecture, since it seemed like by the time she started speaking, the students were already disengaged. Some sort of visual may have been useful in gaining her students attention.
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observation:
Mrs. Crescenzo asks her students to write the dates of upcoming labs and tests in their planners while she does attendance and checks homework. Most of the students just sit and talk, without even taking out their planners. Before she begins to go over the homework, she walks around the room to make sure everyone brought their calculators. One girl doesn’t have her calculator, so Mrs. Crescenzo moves closer to her desk to yell at her for not bringing it. Next, Mrs. Crescenzo goes over the homework by asking students to write their solutions on the board. As some students write their solutions, the other students sit quietly in their seats. Two students in the front of the classroom are talking to each other quietly and one student in the back of the room (right in front of where I was sitting) is playing with his Gatorade bottle and coloring on it. Mrs. Crescenzo stands behind her desk at the chalkboard the entire time she is going over the homework. As Mrs. Crescenzo goes over the problems on the board and makes corrections most students are just sitting there. A majority of them will use their calculators to verify answers when they are asked to, but some are totally disengaged and just staring at her. About 50% of the students actually make correction to their homework while going over it. Others are playing with their nails/hair/calculators. There are pretty typical signs of students being bored. One student sitting in the back of the class copied all the solutions from the board onto his blank homework assignment. After going over the homework, Mrs. Crescenzo asks her students to take out their textbooks and notebooks. She moves from behind the desk to the front of the desk to begin the lecture. She lectures on differences between solids, liquids, and gasses. She asks students questions from time to time, but she is mostly just talking. While she is lecturing, one student in the back of the classroom is flipping through his textbook aimlessly and not listening at all. Mrs. Crescenzo walks back behind the desk to demonstrate viscosity using “goo” in a big hourglass. Everyone watches her as she flips the hour glass over and the goo starts to flow down. Next she teaches students how to light the Bunsen Burners and all students are paying attention to the fire. Students break up into pairs, go to the lab benches and practice lighting the Bunsen Burners. Mrs. Crescenzo and I walk around the room, helping people who are having trouble and making sure people are being careful with the gas jets and the fire. After finishing the lab, they are told to go back to their seats and begin working on their homework assignments. Most students are working, some are talking, and a few are doing nothing. A few pairs form and they work together quietly. The same students in the front of the room who were talking in the beginning of class sit turned in their chairs and talk for the entire 15 minutes. As time went by, less and less students did their work the classroom became louder and louder until the bell rang. Mrs. Crescenzo was busy doing work on her computer and answering a few students about questions on the last test.
Reflection:
I was surprised that Mrs. Crescenzo never said anything to the students who were talking and to the students who had their heads down doing nothing because she is generally very strict about everything. Overall, I think my observations were pretty normal for a high school class right before lunch time. The first half of the class kind of dragged and it was not very interesting, so I wasn’t surprised to see students getting fidgety and lose interest. Going over the homework took a really long time, and no one really seemed to be focusing on it too much. Mrs. Crescenzo went through 10 of the same types of problems so students lost interest, especially those who got the answers right in the first place. Having the goo demonstration helped bring kids back into the class. After she started her lecture and showed the goo, the students came back to life. They definitely enjoyed lighting the Bunsen Burners, and it was good for them to be able to get out of their seats for a little while. With such long class periods, it might have been helpful to allow students to get out of their seats and light the Bunsen Burners before the lecture so they would have an easier time paying attention after being allowed to get up for a short amount of time. I think giving students’ time to start their homework at the end of class can be useful at times, but it seemed really unproductive in this instance because Mrs. Crescenzo wasn’t really paying attention to what the students were doing at all. I would have also used some sort of visual such as a PowerPoint or notes on the board to accompany her lecture, since it seemed like by the time she started speaking, the students were already disengaged. Some sort of visual may have been useful in gaining her students attention.